Our team at 8THIRTYFOUR likes to occasionally hop on our high horses to tell people how to live their lives, and in our latest installment of “Annoying _____ habits you should avoid” we are talking all things email.
We’ve come a long way since the days when the hosts of the Today Show famously asked “what is the internet, anyways?” and struggled to pronounce the “@” symbol. We are now in a time when most of us live and die by the messages in our inbox, and whether you are someone who strives for inbox zero, or are an actual monster who has 5,437 unread messages (you know who you are), there are things we can all do to make the email world a better, and less annoying, place to hang out.
Next time you log into your electronic mail account, try your best to avoid the following bad email habits:
To Bcc or to not Bcc
If you, for some reason or another, need to email an absurd number of people at one time, who don’t know one another, always remember to Bcc the recipients. Whether it is a school-wide announcement, press blast, or change of address, as a rule of thumb, if the number of recipients is over 30, you should Bcc.
Also note, if you are a publicist and you blast a press announcement to a list of journalists and forget to Bcc everyone, you might as well hang up your hat and call it day. That is one of the cardinal sins of pitching.
Another main reason you should also Bcc huge lists of people is because there will INEVITABLY be at least one person who clicks “reply all,” which brings us to our next point…
DON’T Reply All
If you find yourself on the receiving end of an email with a large number of recipients, do NOT hit “reply all” for your response unless everyone on the email chain really needs to see what you have to say. If we all followed this rule, we could avoid the unnecessary, inbox-clogging messages that are usually along the lines of “thanks,” “sounds good,” or “Congrats on the new house! Xoxo, Aunt Sharon.”
Late-Night Emailing
We are all about hard work at 8THIRTYFOUR, and one of our core values even states that we “work harder than the rest,” but that doesn’t mean we are burning the midnight oil every night. If you find yourself tempted to respond to emails at midnight or 2am, and they aren’t urgent matters, maybe save your response in a draft. Also, go to bed.
Not Doing Inbox Research
We know it takes a little extra time to dig through your inbox to find a specific file someone sent, but give it a college try before emailing someone to ask for the document they have already sent you three times.
It may save you from being the recipient of the sassiest email phrase of all, “per my previous email.”
Everyone gets so many emails these days, so if you can spare someone from a distracting and menial task, you will stay on their good side. Although we may sound a little bitter about the email world, we promise that we would LOVE to hear from you.
Reach out to us today to chat all things marketing and email etiquette.
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